Sales of existing homes strengthened 2.0% during July to an annualized 5.590 million (11.7% y/y) from 5.480 in June, revised from 5.490 million. Sales remained at the highest level since February 2007 and were stronger than consensus expectations for a dip to 5.44 million in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Single-family home sales increased 2.7% last month to 4.960 million (12.2% y/y), about the same as they rose in June. Condo and co-op sales eased 3.1% (8.3% y/y) from their 2007 high.

The median sales price of an existing home fell to $234,000 (+5.6% y/y), off 1.0% from June's record $236,300. The average sales price eased 0.8% to $278,000 (+3.9% y/y).

By region, sales in the South led last month's gain with a 4.1% rise (10.0% y/y) to 2.290 million and sales in the West moved 3.2% higher (13.0% y/y) to 1.280 million. In the Midwest, home sales remained unchanged (+13.9% y/y) at 1.320 million and sales in the Northeast declined 2.8% to 700,000 (+11.1% y/y).

The inventory of unsold homes declined 4.7% y/y to 2.240 million and the months' supply of homes on the market eased to 4.8 months. That figure is down from 5.2 months in April and down from the 11.9 month high in July 2010.

The data on existing home sales, prices and affordability can be found in Haver's USECON database. The regional price, affordability and inventory data are available in the REALTOR database. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics survey, reported in the AS1REPNA database.

Measuring the Effects of Monetary Policy on House Prices and the Economy from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.